My favorite way of expressing myself is to spend time deeply connecting with other women. Lucky for me, I turned this into a career. As a life coach, I welcome what my clients want to expose to the light, and together we explore the learning that comes out of it.

I feel most alive when I’m in the place of deeply witnessing another person. This is how I provide service, and it energizes me in huge and profound ways. When I trace back the main themes in my life and within my career, I see that I have always found way to step into the role of witness, whether formally or improvised. It’s what I love most. It’s also what I do best.

I recently created an interview series on my blog called Unfurling, where I conduct interviews with women and record them as videos. The interviews give each woman a chance to explore what’s unfurling in her right now, and to fall in love with that unfurling a bit more.

While I had a hunch that this was a cool idea that others might appreciate, I had no idea how joyful this would be for me.

The interviews all contain the same five questions. From there, the fun begins! The women who play along unfailingly delight me, and our conversations take twists and turns. This doesn’t mean each interview is full of giggles and slapstick (though some are) … it’s the spontaneity and improvisation that creates magic in the moment.

As the willing witness, I point out what I see and ask questions to bring out what isn’t being said in words. I reflect back what I’m hearing. I wonder about implications.

The interviews are powerful both for the woman answering the questions and for the rest of us. The feedback I’m receiving on this series is extraordinary. We’re all unfurling in some way, and the questions I ask lead the viewer to think about what newness is coming alive in her right now.

In this way, I’m sowing the seeds for others to consider what’s unfurling in them, and to notice how it brings them more fully alive. This is powerfully good stuff.

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If you liked this post, you might like past Have Fun, Do Good guest posts:

The nice folks at BenBella Books, the publishers of Blissful Bites, have offered to give away two copies to VegCookbook readers, so go on over to VegCookbookClub and enter for a chance to win.

All you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of this VegCookbookClub post with the name and url of your favorite vegetarian, or vegan blogs. Be sure to add a link to your blog, your Twitter name, or your email,
so that I know how to contact you if you win. I'll announce the winners
on April 30th.

Full disclosure: The link toBlissful Bites is attached to my Amazon
Associates account. If you make a purchase after you click on it, I
receive a small percentage of the sale.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

You are not the same as you were a month, a day, or even a minute ago. Change is imminent.
Embrace and participate inyour reinvention.~ One Love Nuggets

I wanted to give a little shout out for my friend Gabriela Masala's first book, One Love Nuggets.

Each page has a little "nugget" on it, like this:

I like to flip through and read one, or two in the morning while I'm writing in my journal.

What books do you turn to for daily inspiration?

Full disclosure: The link from One Love Nuggets to Amazon is attached to my Amazon Associates Account. If you buy anything after clicking on the link, I get a small percentage of the sale. Also, I've been Gabriela's creative business coach on occasion.

To celebrate this fun event, I'm giving away a one-hour blog coaching session (via phone or Skype). To enter, share the URL and name of one of your favorite blogs in the comments below, or on Facebook by Friday, April 20th. Be sure to put a link to your blog, your Twitter name, or your email, so that I can contact you if you win!

Friday, April 13, 2012

"Being
generous or kind to oneself and to others can help. During times of sorrow and
suffering, the heart becomes more open than usual. Creating the
conditions for generosity to arise can help the heart open in a powerful
way."

I'd like to create a list of easy ways to be generous each day that I can use as touchstones, and of course, I'll share them with you, so that you can use them too.

Will you help me create the list?

Please share your ideas for easy ways to be generous every day in the comments of this post, on Facebook, or on Twitter (I'm @bbravo). If you're shy about sharing your ideas publicly, you can email me at britt at brittbravo dot com, as long as it's OK for me to share your ideas (anonymously, or course) in the final list.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Are any of you going through a rough patch? I have to say that the last little while has been tough for me. Lots of ups and downs. I thought I'd share some of the things I've been doing to help myself get through it.

Color: I've been wearing lots of bright colors, and collecting color inspirations on a Pinterest board.

Connect: In addition to being able to spend lots of time with the hubs, I'm lucky to have lots of women friends to chat with in-person, and over "Skype tea." In fact, I'm writing this while co-working with Julie Daley, Rachel Cole, and Tara Mohr. Fun!Cook: I've been trying all kinds of yummy vegetarian and vegan recipes for my other blog, VegCookbook Club.

Create: Cooking, baking, blogging and collage are all creative outlets for me. I'd like to make more time for embroidery. I have a few Sublime Stitching patterns in my sewing drawer that I'd like to try.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

It was the power of people sharing the stories with one another that actually brought it to some sort of critical mass where mainstream media then took attention. After that, even after the mainstream media attention, it wasn't like, "Oh, and then it really went crazy." It continued on the same trajectory. It didn't actually help it all that much. It was much more important for people to be sharing the stories with each other for the traffic to blow up really, really fast."

Deanna Zandt is a media technologist and the author of Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking. She is a consultant to progressive media and advocacy organizations. Her clients have included The Ford Foundation, The Daily Beast/Newsweek, and Jim Hightower's Hightower Lowdown. She is a Research Fellow at the Center for Social Media at American University.

Deanna specializes in social media, is a leading expert in women and technology, and is a frequent guest on CNN International, BBC Radio, Fox News and more. She works with groups to create and implement effective web strategies toward organizational goals of civic engagement and empowerment, and uses her background in linguistics, advertising, telecommunications and finance to complement her technical expertise.

You can listen and subscribe to the Big Vision Podcast via iTunes, or on the player above. If you have suggestions for people I should interview, or a do-good business that would like to sponsor the show, please email me at britt AT brittbravo DOT com

Friday, April 06, 2012

I spent most of the past week at the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in San Francisco where I saw old friends, taught a session (How to Create a Blogging Plan for Your Nonprofit), and led a birds of a feather group (Changebloggers: Changing the World in More Than 140 Characters) for people writing, or planning to write, do-good blogs for their organization, or on their own.

I thought I'd share links to the blogs and/or organizations that came to the Changeblogger meetup in case you resonate with their work, and to give them a little link ♥love♥. Click away!

Adam De Rose, Interfaith Worker Justice Blog
Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) advances the rights of workers by engaging diverse faith communities into action, from grassroots organizing to shaping policy at the local, state and national levels.

ASIA works to create a better future for abandoned or orphaned children, provide cultural, emotional and educational support for adopted children and their families, and increase cultural awareness of inter-racial adoption. It specializes in adoption from China, Taiwan and Haiti. Check out their blog, Brighter Futures.

Sue Sena, Swish Pride
Swish is a gay-straight alliance that creates opportunities for all women and men to contribute their time, energy, and talents to furthering the LGBT rights movement.